WITH VIDEOS: Police investigating West Bloomfield woman's death; husband is suspect and hospitalized

An unidentified woman had to be calmed by West Bloomfield police officers, after she started banging on the front door of a home where an alleged homicide took place on S. Oak Ct. E. Photo taken on Wednesday, August 18, 2010, in West Bloomfield, Mich. (The Oakland Press/Jose Juarez)

A West Bloomfield Township man is being held in connection with his wife's death, but a delay in obtaining a search warrant Wednesday prevented police from even determining if a crime had been committed.

Police were alerted to the 46-year-old woman's death around 9 a.m. Wednesday, after her husband went to the emergency room at Royal Oak Beaumont hospital with stab wounds to his chest.

The man told hospital staff that another victim might be found at his home in the 7100 block of South Oak Court East, and police found the man's wife there in a master bedroom, covered in a blanket with blood around her.

Three other family members -- children ages 10 and 20, as well as the woman's mother -- were at home when police arrived, but were unaware that anything was wrong.

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The man, who has been identified in media reports as Ellery Bennett, had taken his wife's vehicle to the hospital, causing the family members to believe that the woman had driven to work, according to West Bloomfield Police Lt. Carl Fuhs.

The victim, Lisa Bennett, was last seen sometime between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. She likely died sometime during the "early-morning hours," Fuhs said.

Too good to be true?

Ellery and Lisa Bennett had lived the perfect life, according to her husband's online profile, promoting home-based web businesses that promised wealth and freedom to vacation.

However, court records indicate that Ellery Bennett was recently sued by a bank. Last week, his wife filed for divorce, according to county records.

Ellery Bennett promoted himself as a money-making stay-at-home dad, publishing videos on YouTube to promote wealthearner.com. His titles include "Escaped the Rat Race" and "A Life Worth Living."

Bennett says online that he left a six-figure income after hooking up with a web site that promises to build wealth. Uploaded under the name "golfin036," several of the videos were made in Hawaii, including on Maui's Kaanapali beaches.

"It's not too good to be true," he boasted.

His videos promised the good life, though they lacked specifics about what the work entailed.

Now a homicide investigation

Police attempted to obtain a search warrant around 10:30 a.m., but they were still waiting six hours later.

"It usually takes a while, but it usually doesn't take this long," Fuhs said of the warrant process while speaking to the media at the scene.

"It's kind of a good thing. I've been told by prosecutors from other counties that Oakland County is way more thorough than other counties. If you look at search warrants from Oakland County -- they're good."

Police remained at the scene while waiting for the warrant. Neighbors in the community declined to comment, with one woman coming over to scold the media for reporting on the story.

One friend or family member of the victim ran to the door and pounded on it while screaming and crying sometime around 1 p.m. Police had to console the woman, who was taken from the scene by a vehicle driven by another woman.

It was not clear as of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday how the victim died. Without a search warrant, police were unable to examine the body for wounds in order to check for a cause of death.

Husband a suspect

The woman's husband was in good condition at the hospital, and his prognosis for a full recovery is very good. Police said he would remain in custody for the time being. He was questioned by police Wednesday afternoon, but Fuhs was not able to release any details of that conversation.

"I'm calling him a suspect," Fuhs said. "We can't say for sure if there's a crime. If he actually wanted to get up and walk away, we would not allow that."

Fuhs said he was not sure if police had been called to the home in the past, but there were no indications of previous problems at the home.

"The house is very clean," Fuhs said of the large home that sits in the middle of an upper-class neighborhood. "I'm going to guess that this was not a problem place."

When asked if the man may have stabbed his wife, Fuhs said "That's what it looks like, but we're not ruling anything out. We have to remain objective. We just want to get in and see the evidence (and) which way it points. To go in with a theory one way or another, to prove or disprove -- it's not the way we do it. As tempting as it is, we have to remain objective and let (the investigation) run its normal course."

Police have not released the identity of the victim or her injured husband.